1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to techniques for searching for information on a network, particularly the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Accessing information on the Internet has historically involved using a search engine accessible through a web browser. Users generally type key word information into a search interface and receive a list of results from the search engine. The search engine generally includes a local cache of the pages and a lexicon of common words. For each word, it creates a list of pages that contain that word. Queries entered by users return a list of Internet Web pages and other data formats (such as Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word documents), sorted by some rank, and links to the pages.
Generally, a user's visited site history is stored locally with the browser until cleared by a user. Some third party search engine tools allow a “search history” to be stored from session to session, if the search is performed using the tool. Often, users repeat the same searches. However, there is no effective mechanism for users to keep track of their queries and know when results of the queries change. While browser programs such as Internet Explorer track a user's visited links, they do not do so by associating the links with a given search. For example, users may search for Internet information on “beach volleyball” in order to know when local events occur, and repeat the search regularly, without any indication of previously viewed results. Certain search engine providers have developed and distributed tools which track search information by remembering a number of previous searches, but such tools do not include the ability to track changes to the search or modify the search by allowing a user ranking of hits retrieved.
In addition, the searching paradigm as a means for finding information has expanded beyond the Internet and simple file searching toward becoming the most frequent way users access any information. In the above example, a user may wish to view items from their own personal information which meet the search query, such as scheduling of information about beach volleyball events.
Hence, a method and system allowing a user to store and track search results would be of great value.